Brooks Range Backpacking and River

Highlights

Backpack and paddle through the remote and beautiful Brooks Range, north of the Arctic Circle

Paddle through class II and II whitewater on the Noatak River

Learn about the native culture that make their home near the Chukchi Sea

See Dall sheep, moose, caribou, wolves, and even lynx

Explore the history, geology, or plant and animal life of this remote range

The Brooks Range is one of the wildest mountain ranges in North America.

Stretched across the tundra north of the Arctic Circle, this Land of the Midnight Sun is defined by big open river bottoms, steep mountain slopes, and expansive tundra.

After flying into the area with an experienced Alaskan bush pilot, you'll spend the first 10 days of this extended Arctic expedition on foot, moving across the tundra and up braided river channels. Then you'll swap boots and backpacks for folding canoes and touring kayaks for a three-week river trip in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or Gates of the Arctic National Park, one of North Americas largest mountain-ringed river basins.

The mountains are spectacular and rugged and the rivers flow through wilderness for hundreds of miles. It's possible to see Dall sheep, moose, caribou, wolves, black and grizzly bears, and lynx as you travel.

“The experience was unlike any other and I will never forget my time spent in the Brooks Range. There was so much self discovery and it definitely changed me for the better and made me more aware of myself and my surroundings.”

Dates

July 07 - August 15, 2015

Skills Learned

Backpacking

There’s nothing quite like seeing the remote wilderness on your own two feet, carrying all your own gear on your back while gaining the tools necessary to become a great leader in the backcountry and at home.

Backpacking courses often hike three out of every four days. You’ll travel in small hiking groups so you have more opportunities to lead, make decisions, and map read as you move through beautiful wilderness. Hiking days begin early when you light your stove, cook and enjoy breakfast, and then organize and pack your pack.

You’re usually hiking by mid-morning. Lunch on the trail might be bread you baked the day before, or a trail mix of nuts and dried fruits. You may stop for a short class on natural history, or to learn how to cross a river, travel through boulders or snow, or move over a high pass. When you arrive at your new camp location, you'll first spend time choosing a Leave No Trace site and organizing camp, then you’ll prepare a well-deserved dinner. If the day was long, a short evening meeting may wrap up the day. If the hike was short, there may be a class or discussion.

Canoeing

NOLS courses travel on the world’s best rivers and oceans for learning paddling skills, from the wild whitewater of the Salmon River to the Yukon’s pristine Hess River, all the way to the Kimberley coastline of Australia. You'll scout rapids and practice rescue techniques and learn lining and portaging skills as well.

Location

NOLS Alaska

The boundlessness of the place will grab you first, for there is nowhere as far-flung as Alaska. It will alter your concept of space.

Glaciers calve into the sea, Arctic tundra stretches beyond the horizon, rugged and expansive mountains reach into the sky, wildlife is abundant, and humans are scarce.

The Land of the Midnight Sun has a whopping 238 million acres of public land. The around-the-clock daylight of summer, the vast geographic distance from the Lower 48, and the variety of cultures set it apart. From our state-of-the-art headquarters in the historic Matanuska Valley outside Palmer to one of our operations bases in Fairbanks or Petersburg, we’ll outfit you with everything you need for an expedition into the wild.

No other organization offers the breadth of opportunities in Alaska that NOLS does, from the Arctic Circle to the Southcentral coastal ranges to the Southeast archipelagos.

Backpacking, sea kayaking, or mountaineering: no matter how you choose to explore Alaska, you’ll learn with NOLS all you need to know about living and traveling in this vast wilderness.